Communicates the value of readiness plans for IBM and the customer. Used in global IBM sales training and customer engagements.

1. ibm.com/redbooks
Front cover
The Readiness Plan
A Spotlight on Customer Success
Tim Yerks
Rob Coventry
Jerry Daus
Mike Ransom
David Bryant
David Hong
Calvin Lawrence
Matthew O’Neil
Kent Rebman
Terry Tyler
Communicates the value of readiness
plans for IBM and the customer
Promotes a deeper understanding
of readiness plan contents
Provides readiness plan
templates and samples

3. International Technical Support Organization
The Readiness Plan: A Spotlight on Customer Success
December 2003
ZG24-6731-00

4. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2003. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.
First Edition (2003)
This edition applies to the IBM Software Group readiness plans.
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on
page vii.

5. © Copyright IBM Corp. 2003. All rights reserved. iii
Contents
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
The team that wrote this redbook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x
Chapter 1. Introduction to readiness plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The contents of the readiness plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Readiness plans in high risk implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Examples of when to use a readiness plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.1 Holiday cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.2 Construction company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.3 Major clothing retailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Readiness plan repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.1 The Americas Readiness Plan Tracking Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Readiness plan repositories in EMEA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.3 TSS Xpertise Library for best-of-breed readiness plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Readiness plan execution framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5.1 Roles and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5.2 Collecting for and delivering a readiness plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.6 Relationship to sales methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.7 Prerequisites and the TeAM methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.7.1 Non-functional requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7.2 Project description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7.3 System context diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.7.4 Architectural decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.7.5 Component model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7.6 Operational model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.7.7 Architecture overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 2. Communications plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 Project summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.1 Project objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.2 Project scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.3 Project milestones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2 Stakeholder roles and responsibilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 The IBM Support plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.1 Support process for problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Sample project summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5 Sample stakeholder roles and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.6 Sample IBM Support plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 3. Education and skills plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2 Skills gap analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2.1 Tips for completing the skills gap analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3 Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6. iv The Readiness Plan: A Spotlight on Customer Success
3.3.1 Custom onsite offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4 IBM Professional Certification Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5 Roadmaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.6 Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7 IBM Education Advantage program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.9 Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.10 Service offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.11 Sample skills gap analysis plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.12 Sample education plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chapter 4. Architecture plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1 Approach to creating an architecture plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2 Customer context for the architected solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.3 Sample architecture plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 5. Deployment plans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.1 Implementation plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2 Test plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.3 Migration plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.4 Best practices for deployment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.5 Sample implementation plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.6 Sample testing plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.7 Sample migration plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Chapter 6. Operations plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.1 Operational topics by component and product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.2 Software products that help operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.3 Sample operations plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Chapter 7. Risks and dependencies plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7.1 Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.1.1 Company scenario for managing risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.2 Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.3 Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.3.1 Company scenario for managing dependencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.4 Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.5 Sample risk and dependencies plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Appendix A. Customer Support Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
What’s new in the contents of the CSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
How you use a CSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
How to generate a CSP for your customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
What customers think about the CSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Appendix B. Readiness plan templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Project summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Stakeholder roles and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
IBM Support plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Education plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Roadmaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Web resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

7. Contents v
Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Skills gap analysis plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Skills assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Required roles (optional section) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Role, skill, and responsibility summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Architecture plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Service-level agreements/quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Security and directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Implementation plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Initial roll-out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Implementation strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Environments summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Testing plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Test types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Testing strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Migration plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Operations plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Operations strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Risks and dependencies plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
How to get IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

8. vi The Readiness Plan: A Spotlight on Customer Success

9. © Copyright IBM Corp. 2003. All rights reserved. vii
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10. viii The Readiness Plan: A Spotlight on Customer Success
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11. © Copyright IBM Corp. 2003. All rights reserved. ix
Preface
This IBM® Redbook was written primarily for IBM Software Architects, Software Deployment
Architects, and Information Technology (IT) Specialists to help you understand what a
readiness plan is, when it is applicable, and what the qualification process is. Secondary
audiences include IBM services teams, IBM Global Services practitioners, IBM Business
Partners, and any other person or organization who has a vested interest in the success of
the project. New hire architects and IT specialists should be particularly interested in its
contents.
The premise of this book is that a well-executed readiness plan proactively addresses
solution implementation issues with the customer. In turn, it promotes enhanced customer
satisfaction with the IBM solution. The readiness plan itself is a set of processes and work
products that are designed to accomplish the following tasks:
To ensure that customer and IBM expectations are aligned
To ensure the customer has the appropriate skills for implementation
To assign responsibilities and ownership of implementation tasks
To identify issues and risks and set a proper course of action
This redbook begins with an introduction to readiness plans. Then it provides a chapter for
each of the following subplans of a readiness plan: communication, education and skills,
architecture, deployment, operations, and risks and dependencies. These chapters contain
guidance and examples intended to help save you time as you create quality readiness plans.
This redbook was written by subject matter experts who have had experience in writing,
presenting, and following readiness plans. They have included many “lessons learned”
throughout the chapters.
The Xpertise Library is an online tool and infrastructure that fosters efficient capture and
reuse of intellectual capital. Chapter 1, “Introduction to readiness plans” on page 1, describes
the Xpertise Library and how to access it. You can find much of the information in this redbook
in the readiness plan portion of this library. You should reference the library for the most
current information about readiness plans.
The team that wrote this redbook
This redbook was written by the following team of specialists at the request of Lauren States
(Vice President, Technical Sales and Deployment, SWG) to Maggie Blayney (Director of the
ITSO).
Tim Yerks, Program Manager, WW Technical Sales Support
Rob Coventry, Technical Sales Manager and Certified IT Architect
Jerry Daus, Certified IT Architect
Mike Ransom, ITSO project leader
David Bryant, Technical Advocate – Europe, Middle East, and Africa
David T. Hong, IT Specialist
Calvin Lawrence, Certified IT Architect
Important: This redbook is intended for an internal IBM audience. It is not meant to be
distributed outside of IBM.

12. x The Readiness Plan: A Spotlight on Customer Success
Matthew O’Neil, Software IT Architect
Kent Rebman, Software IT Architect
Terry Tyler, Certified IT Architect
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Mary Book, Technical Sales Manager
Tom Carr, Engagement Manager
Terrence Chang, Technical Sales Manager
Sharon Hunter, Technical Sales Manager
Gail McMorries, Program Manager
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13. © Copyright IBM Corp. 2003. All rights reserved. 1
Chapter 1. Introduction to readiness plans
After a customer commits to purchase IBM Software, it is critical that they acquire the skills
and process knowledge necessary to successfully deploy the solution. The readiness plan is
designed to facilitate the communications and planning between IBM and the customer at this
critical juncture in the sales process, after the software purchase decision is made but before
implementation. In some situations, a business partner may be involved, too. A well-executed
readiness plan proactively identifies and addresses implementation issues with the customer.
In turn, it promotes enhanced customer satisfaction with the IBM solution.
The readiness plan itself is a set of processes, work products, and guidelines that are
designed to accomplish the following tasks:
Ensure that customer and IBM expectations are aligned
Identify issues and risks, thereby setting a proper course of action
Ensure the customer has the appropriate skills and knowledge to successfully engage in
solution implementation
Assign responsibilities and ownership of IBM solution implementation tasks
As shown in Table 1-1, the readiness plan is a compilation of subplans that can be delivered
in many different fashions, such as one-on-one with the customer project sponsor or
sponsors, or presented to a group during a kickoff meeting. The selection of plan elements
and timing of their delivery are highly dependent on each individual situation. Delivery
guidelines and suggested timelines are offered in this redbook.
The technical sales team should become familiar with the nuances of their customer’s
situation and craft the readiness plan accordingly. Customers should be involved in the review
and approval of readiness plans. They and IBM should jointly agree with the findings,
conclusions, and recommendations and agree with the responsibilities that come from them.
You should involve your customer as much as possible with the development of your
readiness plan in order to gain buy-in. There may be portions of the plan that you need to do
on your own but involve your customer as much as possible.
The readiness plan itself is composed and delivered by the Technical Sales Team. Depending
on the scope of the software sales opportunity, the Software IT Architect, the Software
Deployment Architect, or the Software IT Specialist may assume ownership of the particular
Plan. Pure “brand” sales may require the involvement only of the Software IT Specialist team.
1